Some Mistakes Are Worth it

Chapter 5

I dreamed- or remembered, that I was back in high school. The brick school stood out from the browns and greens of the courtyard. I sat under an oak tree, and rested comfortably against the trunk. I opened my book to where I left off and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear to see better.

"So, what's that book about?" a voice asked. A voice that the entire school knew. The voice that would always complain, the voice that yelled into the school announcements speaker. A voice that stole test answers and the voice that was suspended 4 times in 3 months.

"What do you want, Mandel?" I groaned. He gave me a cocky smile. "I was going to come and ask if you could tutor me in Calculus sometime but since you're busy..." he turned around slowly and walked away, slowly. He was annoying, but also intriguing. I marked the page in my book and ran after him. "Wait up!" I called, falling into step with him.

"Oh, so you will?" he asked.

I sighed. "I suppose I've got nothing better to do with my life. I mean, you'll probably be abnoxious, but what's the worst that could happen, right?"

"Right." he responded.

I woke with a cold sweat. I sat up in bed quickly and realized; Sh!t, it's Deana's birthday, I gotta go make sure everything is ready. I checked my phone to make sure Jacob hadn't replied, and he didn't. "Okay," I said to myself, "what do I need to prepare..?"

Birthday candles!!! I FORGOT BIRTHDAY CANDLES.

"Oh sh!t, that's not good," I groaned. I whipped my phone out again and quickly texted, Forgot b-day candles for Deana, can you pick them up? I'll send you the quickest route from the store to the house.

I ran to Deana's room and jumped on top of her to wake her up. "MOM!!!" she shouted, waking up immediately. I started laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe, and Deana joined in too after she recovered from the belly flop.

"Mom, why WOULD YOU DO THAT!!?" she wheezed from laughter. "Happy Birthday my love!" i said, making a kiss face. She grabbed one of her pillows and whacked me with it. I grabbed one too. "That was a mistake, youngling," I told her in an angry, but fake voice.

She smirked and whacked me again. "Okay! Too far!!! I have no choice but to advance!" I called to an imaginary crowd of people. "Then we shall duel, Master James," Deana said with mock sadness.

"Very well, Padawan James," I answered sorrowfully.

"ONWARD!!!" she shouted, smacking me with her pillow.

Thanks for making pancakes, Mum," Deana said as she cut into the four layer pancake with Nutella and berries inside. I bit into my own. "Delicious!" I tried to say around a mouthful of pancake. She laughed.

We heard a knock at the door. "That's probably Henry, I'll get it," I got up and went to open the door.

A tall man with wavy hair the exact same color hair as my daughter looked down at me with striking blue-green eyes. My heart skipped a beat and then started fluttering like a trapped bird as we looked at each other. He tried a smile, but it looked grim.

"J-Jacob!?" I hissed.